SEGA's New Sonic Strategy

That's the point SEGA West CEO Mike Hayes, who oversees North America and European development, drove home during an interview with IGN last week. He said the company is making sure it will listen to what fans want going forward.

"It's all part of a general strategy with Sonic where we are passionate about getting Sonic back up to the quality levels we've had historically," Hayes explained. "We've gone through a major segmentation analysis of Sonic and where it would appeal to the different fans."

Haynes explained the company is driving its Sonic brand at different audiences for the different platforms. The company released Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I on numerous platforms earlier this month. It will also release Sonic Colors for Wii and DS and Sonic Free Riders for Kinect in November.

"On the Wii and Nintendo DS, we're driving those brands to the younger audience," he said. "We have our Mario and Sonic brands that are very mass-market. Then we have our brands where we will focus on our SEGA and Sonic loyalists and we made the decision there to listen to what their feedback is."

"We delayed the launch of Sonic 4 to make sure we got that as right as we could and we're still listening because as we progress the series we want to make sure we get that right."

Hayes explained the SEGA is even approaching development of its Sonic titles differently depending on the target audience.

"Where I think we provide Sonic for a younger audience, there we have to take innovation ourselves and try and understand and work out what will be the best game for a more 8 to 12 year old audience," he said. "For the core fans, we definitely want to hear what they have to say about Sonic."

"It's just such a vital brand for us, and the most important thing is to get relevant quality, and that's what we're going to spend a lot of time and money doing over the next three or more years to get right."

Sonic 4 is apparently off to a hot start. When asked about the game's overall sales, Hayes did not provide exact unit figures, but said it's tracking a little higher than expected.

"It's absolutely bang on where we wanted it to be on all the formats," he explained.

"This is the whole part of us moving Sonic up the scale to a much better quality product. Fingers crossed; it's actually tracking a little bit ahead of where we expected it to be."

Sonic Colors hits Wii and DS on November 16. Sonic Free Riders will be available on November 4.